Offices Held

Biography

Although Cornwallis’s eligibility under the Long Parliament ordinance must have been dubious, he was returned for Eye at the general election of 1660. An inactive Member of the Convention, he was appointed in the first session only to the committee of elections and privileges and made no recorded speeches, but he was teller in five divisions. On 1 Aug. he opposed the bill for inquiring into embezzlements during the Interregnum. After the recess he was added to the committee for the militia bill, and appointed to two other committees of less importance. A court supporter, he was teller for the grant of the second moiety of the excise to the King for life. Re-elected in 1661, he was a very active Member in the first session of the Cavalier Parliament. He was appointed to 39 committees, including the committee of elections and privileges and the committee for the security bill, and acted as teller on three occasions. He was named to the committee for the corporations bill, and opposed the motion that all Members who attended it should be allowed to vote. He was also among those named to consider the bill of pains and penalties and to ask the lord treasurer for a report on the condition of the Forest of Dean. His career in the Commons was cut short by the death of his father at the end of the Christmas recess. He himself died on 13 Apr. 1673, aged 41, and was buried at Culford. His grandson was returned for Eve as a Whig in 1695.2